06-14-2010, 04:39 PM
Slow paced suspense horror hasn't died and it never really will. The films with the terrible pacing and overabundant cliches of today are the sequels and remakes created by film producers and studios. The films that are now genre defining classics were made by artists with the idea of making a good film. Aside from not being in a major studio's pocket, directors like Carpenter, Hooper, or Hitchcock were not out to make a "slasher" or horror flick, they were concerned with conveying dark terror through their medium and craft. Their work was not of the genre, but rather created and redefined it. Like anything else, something of true quality and substance is rare, and only comes around every so often. But, when it does, and especially in the genre of film, it is shamelessly imitated, regurgitated, and cheapened in the name of profit. Those film studios and the hack directors they hire, fail to see nuance and subtlety that make the classics true works of art. They look with superficial eyes at what they are going to imitate or rehash with more thought on shallow imagery and profit than the themes, story, inspiration, pacing, dialogue, ideas, and messages the classics were looking to express. To make an analogy: they want to to put implants on the Venus de Milo, and make it into a bumper sticker. They also insult their audience with over explanation and over exposure of what is not necessary to divulge. They fail to grasp that horror is at it's best a very cerebral genre, and it's what we don't know or see that both terrifies us and fascinates us.Certainly there are movies today that are brilliant examples of the horror genre, made by talented artistic directors. The problem is that a film like "Let the Right One in" are eclipsed by the overactive promotional machine of Hollywood trash, until it gets remade and joins the train wreck. As long as these uninspired films continue to make profit, that is what will represent the genre today. The problem is, money talks, and so B.S. is what we are forced to watch.